Since late 2017, countless women in Hollywood have shared details about the lurid behavior and devastating sexual assaults happening behind closed doors. Some men have either chosen to be silent (leaving fans to wonder if they support their fellow female co-stars), while others spoke out against the outpouring of stories.
As for Chris Evans’ take? In a recent New York Times profile, the Captain America actor explained that he aims to be a better ally to women following the #MeToo movement, particularly in an industry we now know to be inherently problematic.
“The hardest thing to reconcile is that just because you have good intentions, doesn’t mean it’s your time to have a voice,” he said to the NYT.
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The profile points out that the actor has been doing some pretty savvy reading lately. Thanks to his former girlfriend, actress Jenny Slate, he read Rebecca Solnit’s The Mother of All Questions.
Solnit’s 2017 book covers a number of timely topics, particularly misogyny, feminism, and fragile masculinity.
The introspection comes on the heels of Evans’s Broadway debut in the play Lobby Hero, alongside Michael Cera, this month. In the play, he plays an unlikable character with a creepy handlebar mustache. According to the play’s director, Trip Cullman, the mission of the play is to “expose toxic masculinity.”
We typically see Evans flexing his brand — or, perhaps, Marvel’s brand — of heteronormative machismo as a superhero, though the Times painted a different picture. Not only is Evans tackling feminist prose, he's also tackling a new art form just for the hell of it: tap dancing.
It's private tap dance lessons with a close friend that gets his dopamine flowing. “If you walk down the street and you see someone tapping,” you stop in your tracks, he said. Why? “Because it’s awesome.” He noted that his newfound hobby has nothing to do with his day job.
The NYT profile also dropped a bomb: Evans’ Captain America is no more. The actor announced he was quitting the Marvel franchise: “You want to get off the train before they push you off,” he said.
Between Evans #MeToo P.O.V. and him possibly reviving the most undervalued form of artistic expression, the Marvel Cinematic Universe clearly lost a real one this week.